Mapping, by definition, requires describing the relative location of features, with respect to each other, and mapping medical images obtained by a medical examination requires that location of identifiable tissue structures be described relative to other tissue features. Traditionally, scanning devices have immobilized the patient and moved the scanning device around that immobilized patient, or moved the immobilized patient through the scanning device on a carrier. In the specific example of breast imaging examples of these methods are (1) mammography, where the patient's breast is compressed between two paddles so that it cannot move and an external x-ray imaging source takes images of the breast from one or more angles. In the case of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the patient lies prone (on her stomach) on a sort of stretcher and her breasts extend pendulously through holes in that stretcher, and the entire stretcher structure is moved through the MRI imaging device. Even if several images are taken over a sustained period of time, the breast structure does not move and the relative position of one structure to another does not change.
When imaging a structure that is not immobilized, particularly when imaging an inherently mobile structure, such as the female human breast, and even more particularly when imaging that mobile structure with a plurality of images that are obtained at different moments in time, the challenge of mapping the location of one tissue structure relative to another requires a different perspective.
Methods, devices, and systems are disclosed herein to address the challenges associated with mapping the relative locations of mobile tissue structures.